First, a bit about boredom: “Boredom may lead you to anything. After all, boredom even sets one to sticking gold pins into people…one may choose what is contrary to one’s own interest…one’s own fancy, however wild it may be…desire what is injurious to himself, what is stupid, very stupid –
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Wise Law Blog: Mindfulness for Lawyers Goes Mainstream
The Wall Street Journal, of all places, had a feature this week on the increasing prevalence – and acceptance – of mindfulness training for lawyers.In Lawyers Go Zen, With Few Objections, writer Jacob Gershman delivers more than just a clever headline. He focusses on the enhanced listening skills that can be developed through
Continue readingScripturient: The Slow Path to Happiness
If 15 minutes of stillness change the 23 hours and 45 minutes left in your day, including your sleep and your human relations, it seems to be worthwhile. So said Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk who has spent the last 45 years in the Himalayas pursuing the goal of mindfulness.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Mindfulness Meditation Effective in Improving Sleep
Mindfulness meditation is already pretty great, and it keeps getting better! Not only can it help you go amongst your day in a more thoughtful, productive, focussed manner, it can even help you sleep! A six week trial of getting people who had trouble sleeping to mediate proved to help
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Making Friends With Solitude
I used to hate being alone. I remember as a teenager, aching for the phone to ring, rifling through my closet for something ‘cool’ to wear, wandering the halls of my university residence listening for signs of music and laughter. I was restless and bored being by myself. But not
Continue readingA Novelist's Eye: Lilian Nattel Online: Sunrise on New Moon
(click to enlarge) Part of my project for 2014 is to pay attention to the day. Every morning I jot down in a notebook the time of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, the phase of the moon, and the weather, not the forecast, but the feel of the day:
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Don’t We All Hear Voices? A Mindfulness-Informed View of Schizophrenia and the “Normal” Mind
The hallmark of schizophrenia is perceiving things that are not there. Auditory hallucinations, including “hearing voices”, is particularly common. What if this clinically distinguishing feature of schizophrenia differs from the cognitively distinguishing feature? What if, cognitively speaking, what distinguishes schizophrenia is not the presence of voices, but rather how one
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: This New Year’s, Resolve to Stop Chasing Happiness
Many wisdom traditions encourage a path or process orientation rather than a destination or product orientation to living well. Happiness makes for a poor goal. It’s not particularly well-defined. What is happiness? How much happiness is enough to be happy with – to not eventually be let down by? The
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